


bring me home

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: BURNING MAZE SPOILERS, Gen, magnus tries his best, this was supposed to be fun and it got sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 00:05:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14738327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: Hades sat next to his son, and when he spoke again his tone was gentler. “You are very young yet. This is not the last time you will face the death of someone you care deeply for; their mortality is something you must come to terms with. How you handle this may determine your freedom to travel in the future.”





	bring me home

**Author's Note:**

> So Jason died and I was like BUT WAIT WHAT IF, and it was going to be silly but I missed that boat as soon as I started writing.   
> So here, have some implied Jasico because I'm SAD.

Nico di Angelo sat down. He was in the middle of the woods, in the middle of an _activity_ , but suddenly his legs could no longer be trusted to hold him up. Sitting wasn’t a conscious decision; it was an involuntary reaction.

Something _terrible_ had happened.

Will was leaning over him, saying something that Nico couldn’t hear through the ringing in his ears. Nico didn’t understand, why was he in the forest at Camp Half-Blood with Will Solace, when Jason Grace was –

“Dead,” he croaked. Gods, why did his voice sound like that? One moment he was _fine_ , and now here he was sitting on the ground with his half-finished project in his lap and his voice crackly and worn like he’d been crying. Had he been crying? He touched his cheek, no moisture. Not crying, then. Beyond crying, maybe. Nico felt like he’d had the wind knocked out of him.

“Who’s dead?” Will’s voice echoed from far away. Except he wasn’t very far away: he was kneeling very close to Nico now, snapping in front of his eyes. “Nico, love, come back to me. Who’s dead?”

Instead of answering, Nico rolled away from Will and threw up in a bush.

Distantly, he heard Will calling to his siblings for help, that someone needed to help him bring Nico back to camp proper, that he was sick. Nico waved him off, shaking his head; he didn’t need to go back to the cabins. He needed to go _home_.

“Nico?” Will repeated. “Nico, can you hear me?”

Nico nodded, his ears weren’t ringing as much anymore and Will’s voice sounded much clearer.

“Nico, what _happened_?”

“Jason,” Nico answered, eyes squeezed shut. “Jason Grace is dead.”

Will rocked back, away from Nico, and landed squarely on his butt. “You’re sure.”

It wasn’t a question.

“I’m sure,” Nico confirmed. He’d never been so sure of a death in his _life_. The only other one that had hit him this hard, Bianca’s, had come before he was sure in his powers – before he _knew_ it was death he was feeling.

Will didn’t say anything for a long time. He just looked at Nico, studying him hard.

“You look pale,” he decided eventually.

“I am pale,” agreed Nico. “I have to leave.”

“You can’t!”

“Will,” Nico said steadily, looking Will dead in the eyes. “I _have to leave_. I have to go to Camp Jupiter. Jason’s –“

He didn’t finish the thought. He didn’t really know where he was going with it, but he had a feeling whatever the end of the sentence was going to be wouldn’t have gone over well with Will.

Nico leaned forward, touching his forehead to Will’s. “I’ll be back.”

And then he drew the shadows around him and disappeared.

\--

There was a new door in Magnus’s wing of Floor 19. It was one of those things that Valhalla just did sometimes; sprout new doors and wings and hallways and what have you.

The new door was labelled “J.G.” but was otherwise unremarkable. Magnus didn’t notice it when he got up for breakfast, but it was there before lunchtime. As far as he could tell, no one had met the newcomer yet. He could hear someone in the room when he walked by, but nothing distinct.

Magnus didn’t really put much thought to it. His day was full of fun stuff like having things thrown at him (by Alex), eating lunch (with Alex), and getting killed (fortunately _not_ by Alex). He’d honestly all but forgotten about the new person until he was on his way down to dinner with the rest of his hallmates and heard arguing coming from inside the room.

“Wonder what’s with that guy,” said Magnus.

“Some people don’t handle death well,” TJ said, shrugging.

“He’ll get over it,” Mallory said, pushing ahead of them. “Everyone else does.”

It looked like this JG guy was the only new face today, because when they arrived for dinner there was only room for one new arrival at the head table – one unoccupied seat for the newcomer, one unoccupied seat for his Valkyrie.

They were late.

Neither of them showed up until halfway though dinner, both fuming. JG was a tall blond guy, with glasses, a little scar over his lip, and a thunderous expression. His Valkyrie, Sarah, flopped into her seat with her arms crossed tightly over her chest. They didn’t look at each other or say a single word for the entire meal.

\--

“What do you mean he’s not _here_?” Nico snapped. “He’s dead! I _felt_ him die!”

“Nico,” Hades replied in as soothing a voice as he could muster, “he just never showed up. I imagine he’s found his way to some other afterlife. You know as well as anyone that this is not the only option.”

“It’s the only option for _him_ ,” said Nico stubbornly. He crossed his arms. “He’s Roman! He _has_ to come here.”

“I know that Jason was your friend –“

Nico bit down hard on the inside of his lip. ‘Jason was’ hit him like a blow to the chest.

“ – but this cannot be like your sister again.”

“This isn’t like Bianca.” Nico sat down, suddenly too overwhelmed to stand. “It’s not like – I don’t want to bring him back.”

“Then why did you come here, Nico?” asked Hades.

“I just wanted to see him. To say goodbye.” He swept his hands through his hair. “Jason Grace deserves Elysium.”

“If your friend isn’t here, it’s out of my hands,” Hades replied. “Take it up with the other pantheons.”

\--

It turned out that JG’s name was Jason Grace, and his death was –

His death was intense.

It seemed like he’d gone down in a full on battle with a supernatural someone-or-other, saving the lives of two other teenagers and a kid. If Magnus had to guess, Jason was a demigod or something similar – in battle, he’d used the wind and lightning to his advantage. He’d ridden a storm cloud.

Magnus was ready to lean over to Alex and ask if he thought this guy might be a child of Thor when the playback reached Jason’s actual death.

The video ended to the fading screams of a teenage girl. Jason was staring down at the table, his jaw clenched.

“A valiant death! Welcome Jason Grace, Son of Jupiter.”

“Jupiter?” repeated Alex. “He’s not Norse, is he?”

“No,” Magnus said. “He’s Roman. I didn’t know demigods who weren’t Norse could get here.”

Mallory shrugged. “We’re in the majority, but you know there’s no rules besides how you die.” She shoved half a pastry into her mouth. “Bold choice though. Bet someone’s furious.”

\--

“Take it up with the other pantheons?” Nico repeated. “You do know where he is!”

“I did not say that,” Hades said calmly. “Only that if he isn’t here, he must be somewhere.”

“ _Father_.” Nico’s voice was low, his frustration threatening to bubble over. He took a deep breath, gripping the edge of the bench so tightly his hands were starting to shake.

“I suspect _how_ he died might play a role,” replied Hades. “Your vision about his death. Revisit it.”

“I’d rather not,” Nico said.

“You cannot go wandering into other afterlives willy-nilly,” Hades said sharply. “You are a representative of our pantheon and our House and you _will_ comport yourself with dignity.” He sat next to his son, and when he spoke again his tone was gentler. “You are very young yet. This is not the last time you will face the death of someone you care deeply for; their mortality is something you must come to terms with. How you handle this may determine your freedom to travel in the future.”

\--

Jason retreated to his room as soon as dinner was over. Honestly, the only thing worse than dying horribly was having to relive your horrific death in front of thousands of people you’d never met. His room – suite, he supposed – was fairly bare, but it had comfortable furniture and cream coloured walls and photos of his friends on the mantle. Still, he felt odd here. Out of place.

He almost missed Hippie Zeus.

He flopped onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling. He was still working on wrapping his head around the whole being dead thing. Dying young wasn’t exactly a surprise – the possibility had been hanging over him for his entire life – but it definitely wasn’t going to plan. Jason had been expecting to die in a larger scale battle, for one thing, and then to find himself in Hades’s domain, maybe with Nico rolling his eyes in the distance.

_Shit,_ Nico. It had been a few weeks since they’d talked, and then Jason had gone and _died_. There was a lot of stuff that had needed saying, that Jason kept meaning to reach out and talk about and it just – never happened.

Now it wouldn’t ever happen, he supposed. Unless he got to go to an actual permanent afterlife after Ragnarok, which he thought was probably a reasonable possibility.

Someone tapped on the door.

“Come in,” Jason said, not bothering to move from his position on the bed. The door swung open, revealing a pair of people who looked to be in their late teens, around Jason’s age. How old they actually were – birth to death to now – was anyone’s guess.

“Hey, uh, you okay?” asked the taller of the two. “We heard shouting earlier and you seemed pretty unhappy at dinner.”

The short one, a green haired girl with some _bold_ fashion, cut in, “Dying is rough. You should come out to the common space, everybody wants to meet you, and it’s a lot easier when you’re not alone.” She shook her head. “Trust me, I know.”

Jason made a non-committal sound.

“I’m Magnus, this is Alex,” the first guy said, forging on despite Jason’s disinterest. “I don’t know how many Greek or Roman demigods there are, but maybe you know my cousin? Her name’s Annabeth?”

Jason sat bolt upright. “You’re Annabeth Chase’s cousin?”

“You do know her!” Magnus cheered. “Man, honestly that was a shot in the dark. Do you know Percy, too?”

“Percy, yeah,” said Jason. For a moment, the idea of a connection to his friends – his family – in the outside world (Midgard?) glimmered in front of him. And then, he remembered that Magnus was also very definitely _dead_. Great.

“See, we’ve got people in common. We’re practically friends already! They helped us prep for a big quest recently,” Magnus continued, apparently not noticing or caring about Jason’s rapidly lowering interest. “But when we talked – what was it, Alex? Yesterday? Day before? – they said something bad had happened on the west coast and –“

Alex elbowed Magnus sharply as Jason fell backwards onto the bed again. Something bad had happened on the west coast indeed.

“That couldn’t have been _Jason dying_ , could it, Magnus?” she said in a low voice.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“It’s fine,” Jason said. “I know I’m dead. It’s not exactly a secret.” He pushed himself up on his elbow. “Look, I get that you’re trying to be welcoming and stuff, but I really just want to be al-“

Jason’s last word was cut off by a very familiar voice echoing down the hall. “– I know he’s here, someone take me to him!”

Jason was off the bed and to the doorway in seconds. “ _Nico_.”

He shoved unceremoniously through the two teens and into the hall.

“Thank the gods,” Nico said as soon as they locked eyes. He was standing at the far end of the hall from Jason. “I was worried you’d be somewhere I couldn’t bring you back from.”

“Why were you even looking?” Jason asked, as he started to walk toward Nico. They met in the middle and Jason threw his arms around the tiny 15-year-old walking ball of fury.

“Did you really think I was going to let you stay in hell?” Nico said, pushing back a little bit.

“This is Valhalla,” someone piped up from behind Nico, “not Helheim.”

Nico whipped around, glaring. “Don’t test me.”

The speaker, a guy inexplicably wearing a civil war-era military uniform, recoiled. Nico turned back to Jason, the fire in his eyes dying.

“Come to my room,” Jason said. He caught Nico’s hand with his own and pulled him back toward the end of the hall. They didn’t need all these eyes on them.

Jason didn’t release Nico’s hand until they were fully settled on the couch in his room, the door shut tight behind them. Nico looked tired, shaken. Jason couldn’t help wondering if that was his fault.

“I’m breaking you out,” Nico said. “I don’t have a lot of time here, if I stay too long I’ll have to deal with the thanes and they don’t really _like_ me.”

“Have you been here before?” asked Jason, a little thrown. “How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t,” Nico answered, ignoring Jason’s first question entirely. “Shot in the dark; Valhalla is most likely to poach deaths from other pantheons. Dad said it’s been a problem in the past.”

“Are you _allowed_ to take me from here?”

Nico reached for Jason’s hand again, just grazing his fingers over the back of it, almost like he wasn’t sure Jason was really solid. “Not – not exactly. Not back to, ah, Midgard. Death is death.”

“But to the Underworld,” Jason guessed. “You can take me there.”

“You don’t have to go,” said Nico, not making eye contact. “You could stay here, if you wanted. Dying over and over for all of eternity isn’t exactly my idea of fun but who knows, maybe you’re into that.”

Jason just looked at Nico for a long time. “That’s a long time to be away from everyone. Except you, I s’pose.”

Nico shook his head. “I can’t do this forever, Jase. I’m – I’m up for immortality. But even if I don’t take it, once I die I’m confined to the underworld.”

“Right.” Jason swept a hand through his hair. “Immortality, eh?”

“Focus, Jason.”

“I don’t need convincing, Nico,” said Jason. “I know this isn’t where I belong.”

Nico sighed. “Good.”

Jason scooted closer to Nico on the couch, reaching up to gently touch his cheek. “You’re not looking so great.”

“Watching your friends die will do that to you,” replied Nico, pulling away. He stood up and offered a hand to Jason. “No point hanging around here.”

Jason took Nico’s hand, and suddenly they were somewhere else entirely. He recognized it from Percy’s stories – Hades’s palace. The underworld.

The _right_ underworld, at least.

Nico leaned on Jason, visibly a little unsteady. Apparently punching holes through the fabric of different afterlives wore him down a little.

When he got his feet under him again, Nico stepped away from Jason. They were still holding hands, and Jason tightened his on Nico’s before the other boy could pull away entirely. Nico looked up at him, and when he met Jason’s eyes he looked so damned _tired._

“I’m sorry.”

Nico laughed, a clipped humourless laugh. “I’m sorry too, Jase. You deserved better than this.”

Jason opened his mouth to say something else, but Nico shook his head. “Don’t. It’s too late for might-have-beens.”

\--

Nico got back to Camp late, and he wasn’t surprised to find Percy and Annabeth in the Zeus cabin.

They both just looked at him, none of them said anything. Annabeth’s eyes were red from crying.

Percy, who was sitting at Zeus’s feet on his pedestal, didn’t look like he’d been crying, but he did look haunted.

Nico crossed the room to Annabeth, wrapping his arms around her waist and hugging her close. “He’s home. We’ll see him again.”


End file.
